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November 7, 2014

Strange But True!

Q. Try to name the celebrity common denominator here: Orson Welles, Virginia Woolf, Robert Redford, Rihanna Fenty, Eleanor Roosevelt, Steve McQueen and Harper Lee?

A. They all adopted their middle names as their first names, dropping (in order) George, Adeline, Charles, Robyn, Anna, Terence and Nelle, reports Sean Hutchinson in Mental Floss magazine. The phrase “middle name” first appeared in 1835 in Harvard University's “Harvardiana,” though the practice dates back to ancient times. “The three-name structure used today began in the Middle Ages when Europeans were torn between giving their child a saint's name or a common family name.” By World War I, U.S. enlistment forms were including official space for a middle name.


 
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